The New Year...

Our New Year's Eve was pleasant, but low key. Bobby and his girlfriend Emiline went with Brittany and I to Nashville for some shopping and dinner at Cheesecake Factory. As always, the Chicken Costolletta and cheesecake was amazing. We went to bed early as we left for Arkansas at 7 am New Year's Day. You read it right...

Arkansas.

Morrilton, Arkansas as a matter of fact. Some friends had organized a retreat at an Episcopal Camp in the mountains; folks from BG, Nashville, Oklahoma, and North Carolina met up on the 1st for some dialoging, eating and relaxing. It was so nice. Discussions were shared on exile theology, humble epistemology, and Christian peacemaking. (On a side note: if you've never met Stefan Warner, you're missing out.) Basically, the idea was to meet up and talk about what has brought us all to this point in our journey in life: we are all dissatisfied with the institutional church but still earnestly desire to pursue the way of Jesus. This has, obviously, encouraged lots of change in all of us. One of the more interesting discussions revolved around how we, as individuals, are to live in the freedom of Jesus and still be understanding of the opinions, concerns and doubts of others. Long story short, it was an incredible weekend. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it.

Aaron and Terry, who planned the trip, asked everybody to bring something to share; we believe everyone has something to contribute to the church. Besides the discussions I mentioned earlier, Brit taught people to knit. The Rev. Summer Brown led yoga sessions every morning (and some nights). Skinny Man Nate Settle led a discussion on living simply, making things instead of buying them and art. But Terry asked me to teach and lead some discussion on a New Testament perspective on life after death. I've spent a lot of time studying the topic--Dr Trafton, the head of the WKU Religious Studies department, initially helped guide a lot of thoughts and questions about the subject. Since then, lots of authors, speakers, teachers and discussions have helped shaped my ideas concerning what really happens to people when they die.

I spent lots of time trying to put my thoughts on paper concerning life after death--mainly so I could teach on it without jumping all over the place. I'm still trying to finish it, but I've got 90% of it done. So I'm going to post it in several parts and I'll explain my reasons for doing that with the first post. I'm really interested to see what people think about it all.

So stay tuned. I'll post Part 1 in the next day or two.